When I was a kid we had one with the captains chair in the middle row and a table and it was fucking awesome for road trips. We could play cards or something else that didn’t get messed up from road bumps on the interstate. Worked well for eating lunch on the road if it was raining outside too.
I’m sure the reason they went away is failing crash test ratings, but those spinning seats were so damn fun.
My family had one when I was a kid too, and we all loved it. My initial thought here is: is there a way to bring these back safer? Some sort of mechanism or even computer control that requires the seats to be locked in a safe orientation before the van can move, and prevents them from swiveling unless it is parked? Backwards-facing seats might even be safer than front-facing ones for all I know.
But I’m also remind of how big it was. The US already has a problem with too many huge private vehicles on the road. As much as I liked this as a kid, I think today we would see too many single adults driving these things to and from work most of the time. We need to take more cars off the road to make room for these: public transportation, walk ability, cycling infrastructure, smaller cars, etc.
I have a 2003 VW Eurovan Camper with swivel seats and it has exactly that feature. The engine won’t start unless the swivel seats are locked in the forward-facing position.
That’s apparently against the law in the USA for front seats. Drivers seat obviously should be facing fwd when driving but even the passenger seat requires facing forward.
When I was a kid we had one with the captains chair in the middle row and a table and it was fucking awesome for road trips. We could play cards or something else that didn’t get messed up from road bumps on the interstate. Worked well for eating lunch on the road if it was raining outside too.
I’m sure the reason they went away is failing crash test ratings, but those spinning seats were so damn fun.
My family had one when I was a kid too, and we all loved it. My initial thought here is: is there a way to bring these back safer? Some sort of mechanism or even computer control that requires the seats to be locked in a safe orientation before the van can move, and prevents them from swiveling unless it is parked? Backwards-facing seats might even be safer than front-facing ones for all I know.
But I’m also remind of how big it was. The US already has a problem with too many huge private vehicles on the road. As much as I liked this as a kid, I think today we would see too many single adults driving these things to and from work most of the time. We need to take more cars off the road to make room for these: public transportation, walk ability, cycling infrastructure, smaller cars, etc.
I have a 2003 VW Eurovan Camper with swivel seats and it has exactly that feature. The engine won’t start unless the swivel seats are locked in the forward-facing position.
Also available in certain 08+ dodge/Chrysler minivans.
I feel like backwards would be okay too.
That’s apparently against the law in the USA for front seats. Drivers seat obviously should be facing fwd when driving but even the passenger seat requires facing forward.
I’m not sure, but I think vans don’t need to pass significant rear passenger safety since they’re built on a truck platform.
Though it would be trivial to add a lockout and indicators for those seats, no tech required, just a simple switch at the seat.